Guidelines & User Help

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Custom Submission Form Guidelines

In order to encourage higher-quality submissions, many of our customers elect to add extra guidelines to the submission form that are tailored to the organization’s policies and workflow. In addition to clarifying organizational standards, these instructions can also offer users suggestions to make their events more successful.

You can use the Theme Editorto add guidelines in three areas:

1. Right Side: The guidelines can replace or sit next to the default Adding an Event and Batch Event Add boxes.

2. Above the form: The guidelines sit above the form. provide users what to expect after their event is submitted, as well as any policies they should know about before filling it out.

Suggested for: Providing users with what to expect after their event is submitted, as well as any policies they should know about before filling it out.

3. In the form: The guidelines can be placed in between the fields in the form.

Suggested for: Directions or hints specific to form features and functionality.

– BEST PRACTICE –

Be concise. The more text and instructions you display, the less likely your users will actually read to the end. We recommend starting with minimal instructions, then expanding to address common questions or mistakes arising over time.

Place and style appropriately. If you are communicating multiple points or instructions then we recommend breaking them up aesthetically or placing specific instructions directly within the form.

Include extra organizational details. Don’t just limit this space to event form specific instructions. This is a great opportunity to display contact information, links to other organizational resources or other related systems.

Examples and Ideas

Calendar Purpose

Who is the calendar serving?

What events are appropriate or inappropriate?

Who can post an event?

Workflows

What is the approval process?

How is an event edited?

When should an event be posted?

Additional Context

What is the purpose of a custom field?

Why are certain details important?

Are there any best practices?

Additional information or resources

Are there training materials?

Are there event planning resources available?

Adding Custom Guidelines

Custom guidelines, whether added on the right side or within the form, are added using the Theme Editor.

Navigate to Settings > Platform Settings > Appearance

If you do not have a custom theme, select +Add Theme.

Select Edit HTML for your custom theme

Scroll down to Events.

Add HTML to the Public Event Submission Form file and/or _edit_sidebar

The PESF file is for adding messaging within the fields. _edit_sidebar is for adding content to the right column.

Save Changes

If this is a new theme, select Activate to publish your changes.

Public Help Page

Localist provides a blank theme file for you to publish a page with unique help guides, FAQ’s, or directions for your audience.

Navigate to Settings > Platform Settings > Appearance

Select Edit HTML for your active theme

Under Information, select Public Help Page

The file includes code for the two-column layout that Localist uses throughout the calendar — grid_8 is the larger, left column and grid_4 is the smaller, right column. The rest is up to you and your team to imagine, build, and implement.

Once your page is completed, add a link on the platform

On line 5, you will see the code to add to another file in the editor: About this Calendar. For example, if you would like to add it to the homepage above the mini calendar you would add it to the file right_side under Homepage on line 2.

Customer Examples

Beyond the knowledge base we don’t offer a guide for basic users because each platform’s layout and functionality can be extremely different so it is not possible for us to create a consistent guide that can translate across platforms.

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Our team of experts is here to not just do the heavy lifting during implementation, but to also kick your Support services up several notches so you can focus on curating and crafting quality event content. Enter your email address to connect with your Customer Success Manager.